Oh! Gizmo

By Shane McGlaun

We talked earlier about pricing for Windows 7 now that its launch is getting closer. The OS will debut in October, which is only months away. Many are expecting great things out of Windows 7 and it better deliver where Vista failed.

Microsoft says that anyone who buys a Vista equipped PC starting on June 26 will be eligible for an upgrade to Windows 7 for free. The catch is that only certain versions of Vista are eligible for upgrade. That means if you buy a cheap computer running Vista Basic, you get no upgrade.

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By Chris Scott Barr

Unless you’re running a Mac (yes, I went there), it’s almost a necessity to be running some sort of anti-virus on your machine. There are plenty to choose from, most of which cost a decent bit of money for a yearly subscription. Free ones also exist, but they always seem to be lacking a few important features. Well it seems that there will soon be another company tossing its hat into the ring of free anti-virus providers.

Microsoft is currently gearing up for a closed-beta of their new free anti-virus service, code-named Morro. It is described as a stripped-down version of their Live OneCare service. It’s hard to say a lot of bad things about a free anti-virus, so provided that Microsoft doesn’t find some way to royally screw things up, it should likely appeal to those that wouldn’t otherwise bother installing such software. No word on when they are planning to officially launch Morro.

[ Reuters ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The internet can be a great and terrible thing. It’s great for people like you and I, but not so good for big companies trying to keep a secret. There have been a lot of rumors swirling around lately about a new Zune thanks to the speed at which information travels. Rather than spewing out “no comment,” Microsoft has spilled a few of the details on the upcoming device.

They were only willing to give up a few details, which is understandable since they’ll likely be talking more about it at E3. (Shameless Plug: We’ll be at the Microsoft Media Briefing next Monday, so tune in for coverage!) What we do know is that the ZuneHD is going to feature HD video output in 720p (thus the name), HD radio, web browser and a touchscreen. We also know that Microsoft will be replacing the Xbox Live Marketplace with the Zune video store.

Microsoft is also talking about “tuners.” Essentially a tuner is a device that connects you to the Zune music and video services. So far aside from the Zune itself, the Xbox will be the first of these tuners. We’ll definitely keep you posted when we find out more Monday.

VIA [ SeattleTimes ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I always liked the concept of Windows Media Center, I really did. I just couldn’t ever quite justify upgrading to MCE or Vista on my little HTPC, so I made do with what I had. Eventually my 360 would turn into my main media player in the living room, supplemented by my old HTPC running Boxee. Well for those of you that are depending on Windows Media Center, you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft has finally added support for streaming Netflix.

I feel like I should be more excited about this than I really am. You see, I use Netflix, and I already stream my movies to my Xbox 360. Hell, I’ve been doing that for like six months. Sure, it’s great to see them add this to WMC, but shouldn’t this have been done a long time ago?

[ Microsoft ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

We know that Microsoft will be offering up the first release candidate of Windows 7 in just a few days. This means that we’re probably only a few short months away from an actual release date, right? Well according to Acer it will be out in just under 6 months.

Acer’s marketing director in the UK pinpointed the release down to the very day it will hit shelves. October 23rd to be exact. I’d take this with a little grain of salt, but the timing does make sense. After all, it was about 5 months between RC1 of Vista and the actual retail date. My advice? I’d start thinking long and hard before going out and buying a new PC when there’s a new OS just around the corner.

VIA [ PocketLint ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

I think everyone is familiar with the Red Ring of Death on the 360. Hell, if you’ve owned a 360 for very long, you’ve probably experienced this wonderful sensation once or twice. Well lately there’s been a new issue plaguing owners of Microsoft’s current-gen console, simply called the E74 Error.

While the E74 Error doesn’t sound nearly as ominous as the RRoD, it has the same effect. It turns your 360 from a kick-ass gaming machine into a doorstop. Since you don’t get three flashing red lights, you aren’t covered under Microsoft’s extended 3-year warranty. Until now that is.

Microsoft has apparently been listening to their customers again and have decided to extend the 3-year RRoD warranty to include the E74 Error. Just head over to the official support page for the info. I have to commend Microsoft on this move, as I’ve been a bit worried that I’ll have a $200 brick sometime in the future. Wait, did I just commend them for offering to fix a widespread issue with their console that probably never should have happened in the first place? I must be going crazy in my old age.

[ Microsoft ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve been checking out Windows 7 since the beta opened up a little while ago, and have thus far been fairly pleased with it. I’m not a huge Vista hater (I can’t say that I’m in love with it either) but I’m looking forward to the new OS so that I can go ahead and upgrade. I always hate this period of time between operating systems because end-users are sort of in limbo. Everyone is hearing how great the new version is going to be, but they want to upgrade their system now. So what does one do? Well my suggestion this time around would be to wait until July 1st of this year to get a new computer.

Seems like a pretty specific date to be buying a computer, but it’ll definitely be worth the wait. You see, if you purchase a computer after this date, you’ll be able to upgrade to Windows 7 for free (once it is released, of course). The only snag here is that some OEMs may not opt to participate in this promotion, so you’ll need to read the fine print. For those that do take advantage of it, you’ll be in a win-win situation. You’ll have your new hardware now, and you’ll get the new software when it hits without paying extra. Even better, if for some reason Windows 7 ends up worse than Vista (at this point it would take a lot to make it that bad), you can keep Vista.

[ TechARP ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]

By Luke Anderson

Variety is the spice of life, or so the saying goes. Unfortunately for the uneducated, having too many choices can just be confusing. Such was the case with Windows Vista. There were six versions of the software, which were aimed at six different specific markets. This unfortunately made some people confused, while others were left to deliberate on whether they wanted to sacrifice remote desktop functionality for Media Center. So will Windows 7 be any different? Sort of.

Once again Microsoft has decided to grace us with six different versions of their operating system. However, unlike Vista, each time you go up to a higher version, you are getting all of the features of the lesser ones, plus extra functionality. Plus it looks like there are really only going to be three versions that most consumers will see. Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. There isn’t any word on pricing, however, if you hit the jump we have a breakdown of what each version will include.

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This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

The NXE brought us Mii’s Avatars, which I haven’t really done a whole lot with to be honest. I spent roughly 5 minutes setting mine up the first day and haven’t touched it since. However, Microsoft has given us a good reason to put a little extra effort into your creation. You can now “Free Your Avatar”, which basically means that you can create an image of your avatar, complete with text and a background to download to your computer. This is a cool way to make a new profile image for Facebook or Myspace.

Of course the real fun comes when you realize that you can put in anyone’s gamertag and make a picture. This means that you can make a pic of your “crew” (if you don’t have any friends, they have generic ones that you can choose from). Of course you’ll have those immature people that will take your pic and add something rather childish just above your avatar.

Unfortunately at the moment you’ll have to head over to the European Xbox Live site, as it’s not up here in the US. Don’t worry though, you can still pull US Gamertags for your pics.

[ Xbox ] VIA [ GamerFront ]